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You can run the WEFT wizard by selecting 'Run wizard...' from the 'Tools' menu or clicking the 'Wizard' button. By default, the wizard is launched automatically each time you launch WEFT. Selecting 'Tools', 'Options' and modifying the WEFT settings, lets you disable the automatic wizard launch.

The WEFT Wizard walks you through the following steps:

Prompts you for your name and e-mail address.

Builds a list of your Web pages.

Analyzes the use of fonts within these pages.

Lets you choose which fonts to embed and modify their character subsets.

Creates font objects that can only be used on the Web sites you specify.

Modifies local copies of your pages to link to the font objects and
lets you publish these amended pages to your Web server.

Each of these stages may also be accessed from the 'Tools' menu at any time.

When running the wizard for the first time, you will be presented with the following screen:

Click 'Next >' to move to the 'Set user information' screen. On this screen, enter your name and e-mail address.

This screen will not be presented the next time you run the wizard, however it can be accessed via the Tools menu.

What happens to this information?

Your name and e-mail is written as a comment into the Web pages modified by WEFT. This serves as contact information for people viewing your Website who may have 'what font is that?' type questions. This is particularly useful when working on collaborative Web projects where perhaps only one or two people have licenses for the font used. This information is not returned to Microsoft.

Options on this screen

Full name : Enter your name in this field.

E-mail : Enter your e-mail address in this field.

Digital Id: This field is reserved for future use. In future versions of WEFT, we plan to allow users to digitally sign the font objects they create using WEFT.

Back : Return to the wizard's welcome screen.

Next : Continue to the 'Add Web pages' screen. Will not be enabled until you have entered your name or e-mail address.

With this screen, you select the Web pages you'd like to analyze for font usage. These pages can be located on a live Web site, intranet site or network or local drive.

Enter the full http, ftp, gopher or file address of your start page, or use the browse button '...' to locate it.

If you'd prefer to navigate to your start page, first select the desired protocol and then click '...'. Depending on the protocol chosen you will be presented with the standard Windows file picker dialog or a mini Web page browser that you can use to locate your start page.

When you click 'Add', WEFT will follow links on the specified page and subsequent pages to build up a tree-like list of all the pages below the homepage. You can follow WEFT's progress by watching each identified page appear in the list.

The page list is also presented in WEFT's main window.

If you have hidden pages that are not linked to your homepage, you can add these individually by entering their complete address, selecting 'Do not add linked pages' and then clicking 'Add'.

Once WEFT has built the page list, you are can prevent individual pages or complete branches from being analyzed for font usage by highlighting them and clicking 'Exclude'.

Note: There is no way to un-exclude a page or branch from the list, so take care when using the 'Exclude' button.

Screen options

Protocol selection : For selecting the protocol you'd like WEFT to use to retrieve Web pages for analysis. For Web pages on a local or network drive select 'file://' and for pages on a Web server select 'http://'. Other protocols are also listed.

Address of your Web page : Type the location of the start page. This will usually be the site's homepage, but may be a lower level page.

For a start page located on a local or network drive, make sure 'file://' is selected as the protocol. Examples of valid locations are:

c:\typography\default.htm

d:\test.htm

\\myserver\test.htm

Note: An HTML page needs to be specified. Just specifying a folder such as 'c:\typography\' will not work.

For a start page located on a Web server, ensure that 'http://' or another Web protocol is selected. Examples of valid locations are:

www.microsoft.com/ - an Internet site

fontweb/typography/test.htm - an Intranet site

Browse '...' : Use this option to manually navigate to your start page. First select the desired protocol and then click '...'. Depending on the protocol chosen you will be presented with the standard Windows file picker dialog or a mini Web page browser that you can use to locate your start page.

Add : When you click 'Add' WEFT 2 will follow links on the specified start page and subsequent pages below it to build up a tree-like list of all the pages attached to it. You can follow WEFT's progress by watching each identified page appear in the added pages window.

Added pages window : As WEFT follows the links from your start page they will appear in this Window.

Do not add linked pages : Check this box if you do not want WEFT to follow links below your start page.

Back : Use this button to return to the 'Set user information' screen.

Next : Click here to move on to the 'Analyze Web pages' screen.

Cancel : Clicking this button will exit the WEFT wizard and return you to the main WEFT screen.

The next screen explains the page analysis process and gives you the option to skip this step if you wish. During the page analysis process, the characters used on each page are identified by font, style and Unicode value.

Start the analysis by clicking the 'Analyze pages!' button located at the bottom right. Please note that the analysis may take a long time. If practical, you may prefer to analyze a local hard disk copy of your site, as this will be faster.

Microsoft WEFT uses the installed version of Microsoft Internet Explorer to analyze the font usage of your pages. Each Web page listed is individually loaded into Internet Explorer for analysis. It is important that all of your first choice fonts are installed prior to analysis. It is also important to examine the pages using Internet Explorer, to ensure that text is displayed properly in the intended font.

Screen options

Skip analysis: Selecting this option will result in WEFT skipping the page analysis process.

Back: Use this button to return to the 'Add Web pages' screen.

Next: Click here to start the page analysis and move on to the 'Fonts to embed' screen.

Cancel: Clicking this button will exit the WEFT wizard and return you to the main WEFT screen.

Once the pages have been analyzed, the font usage screen is displayed:

The font list is also presented in WEFT's main window:

Each font used by your pages will be listed in the table on this screen. The fonts are flagged using the same traffic light system used by the font check feature.

Editable or Installable. These fonts are okay to embed and can be used in any Web page, even those where the user can edit the content. See our Client-side graffiti demo as an example of a page that lets the viewer edit the content.

Previewable. These fonts are also okay to embed but should only be used in static Web pages where the user can't edit the content.

Windows core font. These fonts have been identified as common core fonts. Embedding these fonts is not recommended.

'No embedding' font. These fonts have their embedding permissions set to 'no embedding'. If a font you want to use is marked as no embedding, it may be worth contacting the font's vendor to see if they can provide an embeddable version.

Font may be broken! These fonts cannot be embedded because they have failed Weft's error tests. It may be worth checking with the font's vendor to see if they have an updated version.

Embed / Don't Embed

If you decide not to include a common core font or any other font, highlight it and select the 'Don't Embed' button. If you change your mind highlight it and select 'Embed'.

Subset

The Subset column lists the total number of different characters from each font that are used by the pages analyzed. By default when WEFT creates font objects it will only include the characters actually used by your pages. However, with various types of pages, such as those that contain dynamic content, the characters used may change through user input or other events. To ensure that an adequate number of characters are included, WEFT features seven different levels of automatic subsetting. You can also manually edit the individual font subsets generated by clicking the 'Subset' button.

Add

If you want to include a font that has not been identified by WEFT select 'Add...' to bring up the dialog shown below.

Screen options

Subsetting :

There are seven different levels of font subsetting supported by Microsoft WEFT. The 'Font Subsetting' drop down box lets you alter the type of subsetting used by the tool.

'Per Page' Subsetting

The tool analyzes font usage on a page by page basis. For each page, font objects are created for each font used. Each font object will only contain the characters used by a particular page, and will only be linked to that page.

Example: If you have five pages that use Garamond Italic, five different Garamond Italic font objects will be created and linked to the corresponding pages. If visitors are only going to access an individual page, then this level of subsetting will be the most efficient.

If you expect visitors to access a number of pages on your site, then Normal Subsetting will probably be more efficient.

'Per Site' Subsetting

The tool analyzes font usage across your pages on a per font basis. Only one font object will be created for each font used. This object will contain all the characters used by all the pages that use the font.

Example: If you have five pages that use Garamond Italic, only one font object will be created. This object will contain all the Garamond Italic characters used by these five pages. This font object will be linked to all the pages that use the font.

Family based Subsetting (default)

The tool analyzes font usage across your pages on a per font family basis. All font objects created from a given font family will contain the same characters.

Example: If you have a page that uses 'a', 'b' and 'c' from Garamond, and characters 'd' and 'e' from Garamond Italic, font objects for both Garamond and Garamond Italic will be created that contain 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd' and 'e'.

Family based subsetting should be the typical setting for dynamic HTML pages where scripts may dynamically alter the style of elements in the document. For example, visited links may be displayed in a bold face while non-visited links are in the regular font.

Union subsetting

The tool analyzes font usage across your pages on a character use basis. All font objects created will contain the same glyphs.

Example: If you have a page that uses 'a', 'b' and 'c' from Garamond, and characters 'd' and 'e' from Gill Sans, font objects for both Garamond and Gill Sans will be created that contain 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd' and 'e'.

This level will handle more complex Dynamic HTML scenarios where not only the style but the font usage can be changed on the fly.

Raw subsetting

The tool analyzes font usage across your pages on a font basis, however font objects will contain all of the characters used by the page regardless of their visibility. This is similar to union subsetting, the difference being that the raw HTML pages are used to compute the character usage. These font objects will include characters used in scripts and comments as well as those displayed within the browser window when the page is loaded.

Language subsetting

This option will result in font objects being created based on language usage rather than statistical information about character usage. You can specify any one of the 96 Unicode code point ranges as defined by ISO 10646.

WARNING: We do not recommend the use of 'Language subsetting' when creating font objects based on Far East fonts, as the file size for the font object will be very large.

No subsetting

The font object will contain all the characters contained in each font used.

WARNING: We do not recommend the use of 'No subsetting' when creating font objects based on Far East fonts, as the file size for the font object will be very large.

Language : If you have selected '6. Language subsetting' use this option to select which Unicode range you want to include in the font object.

Add... : Use this option to include additional fonts that have not been identified by WEFT 3 as being used on analyzed pages.

Embed / Don't Embed : Use this option to choose not to embed common fonts.

Subset : Use this option to manually edit the individual font subsets identified by WEFT 2.

Details : This option launches the Windows font viewer.

Back : Use this button to return to the 'Analyze Web pages' screen.

Next : Click here to move on to the 'Create Font objects' screen.

Cancel : This button will exit the WEFT wizard and return you to the main WEFT screen.

On this screen, you need to give WEFT two pieces of related but very different information:

First, tell WEFT where to place the font objects it is about to create. This could be a local hard disk, network drive or Web server.

Second, provide the Web addresses of pages that should be allowed to use the font objects. This prevents unauthorized Web pages from using them. This process is know as 'URL binding' or entering 'allowed roots'.

Font object location

On this screen you should enter the full ftp, http, gopher or file location where you want the font objects to be created.

Note: Most Web servers won't let you upload files using http. In many cases it's easier to specify a location on a local drive and use other tools to copy the font objects to your server.

Allowed roots - URL binding

Have you ever created original GIFs and JPEGs for your site, only to discover weeks later that someone has been reusing them on their site without your permission? Have you ever thought how great it would be if your images could somehow be tied to your site's address so that they couldn't be reused in this way? Tying or 'binding' a GIF to a particular Web site URL isn't yet possible, but URL binding is a feature, and W3C mandated requirement, for font objects distributed over the Web.

Use the 'Mirror sites' button to add as many root addresses as necessary. If your pages are accessed from an address below 'http://www.microsoft.com/' you would enter this as an allowed root. You should also add the root addresses of any mirror sites, test sites, or Intranet sites where these pages might be posted.

Figure. Mirror sites

If you want to be able to access your pages from a local or mapped network disk for test purposes, include 'file://c:\' (substituting 'c:' for the correct drive) as a mirror site.

You need to specify the root address of pages that will link to the font objects. When a page links to a font object, Internet Explorer will not use the font object unless the URL of the page matches one of the allowed roots. This is an important security precaution designed to stop other sites from linking to font objects you've created.

Screen options

Enter the location where the font objects will be created :

Protocol : Use this menu to select the protocol you want WEFT to use to upload your font objects to your server. For Web pages on a local or network drive, select 'file://', and for pages on a Web server, select 'http://'. Other protocols are also listed. By default, WEFT will specify the protocol used when analyzing your Web pages. Note that in many cases you will need to specify a different protocol and location when uploading font objects and modified Web pages to your server. For example, you may have used the http:// protocol when analyzing Web pages, but will specify an FTP: address when uploading the font objects and modified pages.

Location : Enter the URL address where the font objects should be placed. By default WEFT will specify the URL address used when analyzing your Web pages. Note that in many cases you will need to specify a different protocol and location when uploading font objects and modified Web pages. For example you may have used an http:// URL when analyzing Web pages, but will specify an FTP: address when uploading the font objects and modified pages.

Browse '...' : Use this option to manually navigate to the location you want to upload the font objects to. First select the desired protocol and then click '...'.

Font objects may only be used from pages under these roots :

Location : For specifying the root address of pages that will link to the font objects. When a page links to a font object, Internet Explorer will not use the font object unless the URL of the page matches one of the allowed roots. This is an important security precaution designed to stop other sites from linking to font objects you've created.

Warning! The publishing process copies modified versions of your pages back to their original location so make sure you have a backup copy of your pages.

The modified pages are stored in your 'Work folder' (by default this is located in your 'My documents' folder) and you may prefer to review the changes made by the tool before copying them to your site.

The code WEFT adds to your pages

WEFT adds a STYLE section to the HEAD tag of each HTML page that uses one or more font object. The code added conforms to the current W3C CSS2 specification.

This code tells Microsoft Internet Explorer to use the 'Garamond1.eot' font object whenever the font Garamond Italic is specified within the page. The browser will use the font object regardless of whether the font is specified using the FONT FACE tag, a linked or inline Cascading Style Sheet or some other method.

Options on this screen

Explore : Clicking this button will open your WEFT 'work folder' using Windows Explorer. The location of the work folder is shown in the grayed-out box to the side of the 'Explore' button. The location of your WEFT work folder defaults to your 'My Documents' folder but may be changed via 'Tools', 'Options', 'Settings', 'WEFT', 'Work folder'.

Do not upload modified pages to my server : Selecting this option will result in WEFT skipping the page upload process. If you select this option you can still add font object linking code to your pages manually or selectively copy modified pages from your work folder.

Back : Use this button to return to the 'Create font objects' screen.

Next : Executes the selected options on this screen and continues to the 'Finished' screen.